Mega Man: Dimensions
by greatn
Summary: This story is a sequel to Mega Man Reverse. Mega Man finds himself traveling from dimension to dimension, trying to find his way home. With every jump, his memory seems to be fading. Will he ever make it home before he forgets what his home even is?
1. Chapter 1: Metropolis

Mega Man: Dimensions

Chapter 1: Metropolis

"Please work," thought Mega Man. He had just stepped through a portal hoping that it would return him to his own universe. For the past few months he had been in a world that was not his own. It was a world where Dr. Light was an evil madman and only Dr. Wily could stop him. Mega Man had seen some horrifying things, but in the end he did what he always did. He saved the world. That universe's Wily built him a dimensional gateway. It was supposed to take Mega Man home, but it was not a guarantee. He also gave him a communicator, though it would only work as a receiver, and Wily had not figured out how to transmit yet. As Mega Man felt himself slowly rematerializing from energy, he closed his eyes and hoped to re-open them to see Monsteropolis.

Mega Man opened his eyes. He was in a large city, full of skyscrapers. That was a good sign. Mega Man had landed on top of one of the taller buildings in the city, next to a giant statue of a globe. It looked to be made of bronze or brass, and had words in 'orbit' around it on the other side. Mega Man walked over to see what the writing was. He remembered no such statue in Monsteropolis.

Moments before, while Mega Man was still teleporting in his energy form, a few people inside the building noticed a blue blur whiz by their window. "Did you see that?" a woman asked.

"Yes, I saw it, Lois." A tall gentleman with horn rimmed glasses responded.

"I'll race you to the roof," she playfully said, grabbing a camera and notepad. "Maybe we can see it flying around." The man followed her to the elevator but grabbed her shoulder, stopping her from going in.

Mega Man was about to read the letters on the globe, but suddenly saw a large billboard on another building. At first he thought it said "Monsteropolis", as that was what he expected to see. But Mega Man did a double take as he read it again. "Metropolis?" he asked.

The man entered the elevator alone to Lois's protest, and began unbuttoning his shirt. "No Lois," he winked. "This looks like a job for Superman."

Mega Man turned around and looked at the globe. "Daily Planet" it read. Mega Man clenched his teeth and grabbed his head in frustration, falling defeated for a moment. It was a brief moment, however. If he had escaped one dimension he could escape another. Mega Man stood up, resolved to find a way home. He was surprised to hear a voice behind him.

"Hello there," it said. "Most people don't accidentally end up on top of tall skyscrapers like this. Is there anything I can help you with?" The voice was amazing. It was a deep male voice, and while it was very authoritative, it was also one of the friendliest voices Mega Man had heard. Mega Man turned to see the source, and couldn't believe his eyes. There he saw a man, or a very convincing facsimile of a man hovering in the sky just a little over the rooftop's edge. He was wearing a red and blue uniform with a yellow shield on the chest which had a large red letter "S". He also had a long, flowing, cape. Mega Man stood up and looked in amazement at the sight before him for a moment. It certainly wasn't uncommon to see a flying humanoid robot where he was from, but never one so convincing.

Mega Man was unsure how this world worked, so he was a little guarded in his answers. "I hope I'm not trespassing," he said. "I'm afraid I'm a little lost."

"Maybe I can help you out," the stranger said, "You seem to be manufactured by a Dr. Light. I haven't heard of any Dr. Lights especially gifted in robotics, at least not to the extent that they could build something with your systems. Is it an alias of some sort?"

Mega Man was shocked. "How..." he asked, "How did you know that?"

"A creator's stamp is imprinted on the inside of your left leg." he answered, "I apologize for invading your privacy like that, but I heard the hum of your atomic engine and wanted to check to make sure you weren't a bomb."

"Um, that's interesting," said Mega Man, "but I don't understand. How could you hear or see that?"

"You don't know who I am?" the man asked.

"I have no idea," Mega Man answered.

"In that case, introductions are in order." The man landed on the roof near Mega Man and offered his hand. "I'm Superman."

Mega Man shook his hand. "Mega Man," he introduced. Mega Man was at a loss for words, so Superman continued to speak.

"I don't mean to be egotistical but it is surprising you've never heard of me." Superman said. "When were you created, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I was first created in..." Mega Man began, but stopped. "Um..." he started again, but something was bothering him. He couldn't really remember. "Two thousand... two thousand and... I don't know: 200X?" Mega Man was quite alarmed at not being able to remember his creation date. It was supposed to be hard coded in his memory.

"If you don't mind, Mega Man, I'd like to take you to S.T.A.R labs. They may be able to help determine where..." suddenly Superman stopped. "An explosion's just gone off in Suicide Slum. I have to go, but I'll be back." The Superman disappeared in a fast streak of red and blue, heading east. Mega Man wasn't sure what to do, so he followed his instinct. Mega Man ran and jumped off of the building, falling many stories before landing on the sidewalk safely, much to the shock of pedestrians, and ran east towards what he could only assume was Suicide Slum, asking out directions along the way.

Mega Man kept on the move and he could move surprisingly fast for his size when sliding. He reached the edge of Suicide Slum in about ten minutes. Little did he know that if something was taking Superman ten minutes, it was a bad idea to run towards it. Mega Man saw it first-hand when scores of people began running past him, screaming in terror. Mega Man kept moving regardless. It was his job to protect people, whether they already had a protector or not. He advanced further, hoping to find the source of terror, when Superman suddenly burst through a building as if he had been struck through it, landing on his back in front of Mega Man. Mega Man ran to help him up. "Are you alright?"

Superman quickly got up himself. "You need to get out of here, now!" he yelled, taking off in a blur back where he had been hit from. Mega Man ignored the warning and ran to follow. About a block down he saw Superman exchanging blows with what looked like some kind of humanoid robot. Superman landed a particularly effective blow to the machine knocking it back fifty feet, leaving a giant skid in the pavement.

"Punch me as much as you like, Superman, it won't matter," the being warned. Pipes suddenly burst up from below the street and seemed to liquefy, rejoining with the robotic aggressor, healing the damage. Suddenly red beams of heat burst forth from Superman's eyes, striking the creature. Its metal began to melt but also constantly reconstituted itself. Mega Man decided to place a stake in the battle and released a charged shot at the creature, striking true. The shot caused it to explode into several pieces, though the pieces immediately seemed to start reforming.

Superman turned towards Mega Man with a disapproving gaze. Before Mega Man even knew what was going on, he found himself being held by an arm half a mile away, hundreds of feet in the air by the man of steel. "What?" Mega Man asked in surprise. If he had been cognizant enough to finish the sentence it would have been "What is going on?"

"I appreciate the sentiment," Superman said, "but you don't know what I'm fighting. You need to stay away."

"I can help," Mega Man replied, "I already did some damage."

"That thing's name is Hank Henshaw." Superman began. "His spirit has the power to take over machines. He's currently possessing Metallo, a cyborg with strength to rival my own and the ability to control metals. You do NOT need to be there."

"Wow..." Mega Man said. "I'm sorry. Thanks for getting me out of there."

"Not a problem," Superman said. "I'm just glad I got you out before Henshaw could..." Superman stopped as Mega Man's face morphed into that of Henshaw's.

"Before I could what?" he asked, emptying a charged shot into Superman's chest.


	2. Chapter 2: Brawl

Chapter 2: Brawl

Superman was knocked back a few meters by the blast and lost his grip on Mega Man. The force of the blast surprised him. "That was interesting" Henshaw said with an evil smile.

Before Henshaw could fall to the ground, Superman recovered and grabbed Mega Man's body, tossing it back towards Suicide Slum. He calculated it would be about thirty five seconds before it landed there. "Clark" he heard in a whisper. "Can you hear me? Are you alright?" It was Lois. With a few seconds Superman was at the roof of the daily planet, where Lois was waiting.

"I have to be quick, Lois." He said. "You have to stay away from this one. It's Henshaw again and this time he has power over all technology and metal. I'm trying to contain him, but it isn't safe for anyone there." Lois nodded.

Superman heard her whisper "Good luck, Clark. I love you." as he flew back to the slum. He arrived just in time to see Mega Man land where he had thrown him, on his feet.

"Throwing me back here where I've already infected everything?" Henshaw asked. "Not a smart move on your part." Metal erupted from the street and formed into various weapons firing, swinging, or grabbing at Superman. Superman began evading and destroying them as much as possible.

"I couldn't risk you spreading from two locations at once." Superman said. "I've got to contain you here."

Mega Man's body ran towards Superman as a giant mechanical hand grabbed the hero from below. He managed to hit him with another charged shot, sending him reeling. "You won't contain me, Superman." he mocked. "This body is fascinating. Do you know it can duplicate any weapons system?" Mega Man turned red and shot a stream of fire at Superman, which Superman easily deflected while breaking the bonds of the metal that had encased his feet.

"It usually has to absorb a weapon to use it" Henshaw continued. "But after merging with Warworld I have the knowledge of nearly every weapons system in the universe at my disposal." Superman continued to destroy as much metal as he could, ignoring the monologue of the robot. "Take for instance, these red solar grenades." he said, hurling small black balls from his arm cannon. Superman shot the grenades with his heat vision before they could even get near him, but underestimated the range of their explosions. He was bathed in red solar energy, one of his only weaknesses.

"The sad thing", Henshaw continued, "Is you could stop this by destroying this robot. He's too sophisticated for me to duplicate. But no, he is an innocent, isn't he?" Superman continued to be peppered by bolts from more machinery that kept springing up out of the ground or coming out of buildings. In his weakened state it was beginning to take its toll on him. Mega Man turned yellow and black and shot a small device at Superman which latched on and exploded in a tiny three foot tall mushroom cloud. Superman screamed in pain and was thrown nearly a block backwards, landing on the pavement, and rolling several times before he stopped moving. "I can make any weapon I desire. I just can't make the ammunition if it isn't metallic. Do you have any idea what kinds of elements are required for that bomb?" Henshaw continued to talk as Mega Man's body walked towards the downed Superman. "But this body has some kind of limited, universal supply. It can fire any weapon!" Henshaw stood over Superman's unconscious body and turned green on lime green. "Take for example, a kryptonite ray.

"I'd rather not," Superman said, kicking his foot as hard as he could. Mega Man was sent flying straight up. If Superman had not been weakened he would have been sent into orbit or destroyed on the spot. Superman got up and flew as fast as he could towards the sky. In his current state it wasn't terribly fast however. Lasers, buzz saws, and many other weapons all turned and began firing on him, trying to take him down. Superman concentrated as hard as he could to dodge them, and made it to the top of a skyscraper. Summoning his strength, he took off again, flying as high as he could. From there on he was home free. Once he made it above the clouds he could feel his energy returning. The yellow sun was shining directly on him. After only half a minute he felt nearly at full strength again. Superman saw Mega Man in the distance begin falling from the kick. He flew down and caught him just before he could crash to the pavement.

"Your respect for this one's life is going to be your" Henshaw began, but suddenly noted he was moving at insanely fast speeds, and having trouble speaking. By the time he could see clearly again, he was surrounded by white. "Undoing?" he finished his thought.

"Antarctica," said Superman. "No metal or technology, at least for a few miles, so you can chill out here." Superman unleashed freezing breath, encasing Mega Man in a block of ice, and flew off.

Within a minute he was back in Metropolis, fighting the Henshaw entity in the slums. "It will not matter!" Henshaw shouted, from a body shaped like Metallo. More and more machines formed and poured in from everywhere in the area. Buildings began to collapse from having the metal extracted out of them. "For every machine you stop I'll build three more!"

Superman stopped fighting the machines and flew into a collapsing building. Seconds later the building was holding steady. People began flooding out of the building. "Everyone try to evacuate as fast as possible!" he shouted. "I'll try and hold him off!" Superman continued to support the buildings structure. Henshaw formed more and more Metallo clones and began firing at Superman. The weight and the energy beams were beginning to overtake him, when a few more survivors escaped. Superman looked the building over with x-ray vision. Every one was clear.

Quite suddenly he was hit with a thin green beam, which caused him to completely collapse, and the building fell down around him. Mega Man's body walked through a legion of Metallo clones to the rubble, in green and lime green. "The knowledge of a million weapon systems in my brain and you didn't think I could simulate a teleporter?" Henshaw asked.

A fist of blue punched up from beneath the rubble. Superman began to slowly crawl out. He tried to take to the sky but his powers were failing him. He was flying at a snail's pace. Mega Man hit him with another kryptonite beam. Superman landed hard on the concrete and struggled to move. This time he was not playing possum. "It's about time," Henshaw remarked. "This time stay dead." he said as he lifted Mega Man's arm cannon.

"NO!" Mega Man shouted. His color suddenly changed to a gradient. It was unlike anything Mega Man had ever seen himself do. The Metallo clones began charging him and Superman, but suddenly stopped.

"What happened?" Superman asked weakly.

"I've taken control back." Mega Man said. "I managed to absorb his primary weapon from him being inside me so long; the ability to control all machinery. I barely had enough willpower… I managed to fire it."

"And now you're in control?" Superman asked.

"Yes." Mega Man responded. "This is temporary. When I run out of weapon energy for this power he'll have full control again. It's…" Mega Man paused. "It's amazing. I've never felt anything like this before."

Superman began to rise to his feet. "My powers are completely gone. Just this sunlight won't bring it back for quite a while. It's up to you, Mega Man."

Mega Man began concentrating. All the Metallo clones around began to go inert, and then melted into their base metals. All other Henshaw machinery was affected in the same way. "I've deactivated everything in the area. The only thing with Henshaw still inside is me. Wait, I've established a link. Henshaw is inside of a machine which is hooked up to Metallo, in some facility known as Belle Reeve. That's how he is exerting control over metal."

"Good work," Superman said. "How much more control do you have, and can you get rid of Henshaw?"

"I can't affect the one in Belle Reeve" Mega Man said. "I can only hold this for a minute at most before he regains control. I can purge my weapons systems. That will get rid of him, but he'll come right back the same way he got here in the first place. It's overwhelming, like I have every single possible weapon all equipped at the same time."

"Does that include some kind of concentrated solar ray? Yellow sun radiation?" Superman asked.

"Yes," Mega Man replied. His gradient color began flashing brilliantly.

"Shoot me!" Superman demanded. "Give me as powerful a blast of yellow sun as you can!"

Mega Man complied. A brilliant streak of yellow came out of his arm cannon, and the solar energy flooded into Superman's cells. Within a few second he was almost glowing. "I can't hold this much longer Superman!" Mega Man shouted. "He's retaking control!"

"Purge the weapons!" Superman shouted, and disappeared in a huge red and blue streak. Mega Man concentrated and began flashing through all colors again. The power began to seep out of him. He felt as though for a brief moment he had achieved godhood. Mega Man collapsed on the street.


	3. Chapter 3: Alive

Chapter 3: Alive

"He's waking up", the voice of an older man spoke. Mega Man felt his head swirling. He opened his eye to blurry vision and slowly sat up. He found himself on what looked to be an operating table in some kind of lab. As his vision cleared up he began to see a young man in a lab coat that looked vaguely like a younger Dr. Light. As his vision cleared up a little more, he noticed the similarities were only superficial. This man was much taller and thinner than Dr. Light.

"My name's Dr. Will Magnus" he introduced himself. "Superman brought you here after your battle. You were low on power so I took the liberty of figuring out what form of energy you ran on." Superman appeared to the left.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yes. Thank you." Mega Man answered. "What happened?"

"I was able to stop Henshaw from controlling Metallo. He's contained now." Superman replied.

"I'm sorry," Mega Man said. "You told me to stay away. I didn't know what I was getting into and Henshaw took me over. I nearly got you killed."

"Don't be." Superman smiled. "I'm not sure I could have stopped him without your help. Even without the red solar radiation and the kryptonite, he was slowly spreading."

"That you were able to exert your own will over his" Magnus added, "was quite extraordinary."

"Metropolis is in your debt." Superman said. "I'm in your debt." he added. "What can I do for you?"

Mega Man smiled and began to tell them of his tale: how he was from another Earth where he fought the forces of Dr. Wily, how he had originally been just a machine that came to life, how he had been transported to an alternate Earth, and how he had been transported here. "I just want to get home." he added.

Dr. Magnus seemed very intrigued by the concept of a living machine. "you say you became a living machine by accident?" he asked.

"Yes," Mega Man responded. "Why?"

"In this world I've created living machines." he said. "They're called the Metal Men. It is a repeatable process."

"That's… that's fascinating" Mega Man responded. "In my world about four living machines have been created, all by accident. Myself, my brother, a robot named King, and…" Mega Man paused. "Um… I can't remember. It's a B or an F, definitely. Fish? Yes, his name is some kind of fish."

Superman looked concerned. "I think you're experiencing more memory loss. You couldn't remember your activation date either."

"This isn't good." Mega Man said. "I've got to get home. I know Dr. Light can fix this."

"I can try." said Magnus. "I'm probably the world's foremost authority on living machines."

"In the meantime I can check with STAR labs and see if there is any thing they know about alternate dimensions."

"Strings…" Mega Man answered. "It's all strings. Every dimension has a different vibration for its strings. You overload an area with energy from the wrong set of strings and you can create a breach. You just have to put two things in the same place at the same time, and you need an extra dimensional sample."

Superman looked to Dr. Magnus. "That's…" Magnus said, a little surprised "That's pretty sound theory."

"I was a lab robot originally," Mega Man responded. "And Dr. Wily in the last universe told me about it."

As if on cue, Mega Man's communicator began beeping, materializing in front of him.

"Hello?" a man appeared on its screen. "Is anyone there?"

Mega Man looked at the screen. That man was definitely not Dr. Wily. The man continued. "This thing has documentation that says it can communicate with other dimensions. It says the receiver will need a firmware update to communicate back. I have that going right now." Just then a message "Firmware Update Completed – Two Way Communication Enabled" appeared on the screen.

Mega Man grabbed the screen and responded. "This is Mega Man. Do you work for Dr. Wily?"

The man looked back and had a look of shock for a moment. "Good lord, you're the spitting image of X! Took you long enough to answer, I was about to shut this thing down, I didn't think it worked." he said.

"X?" Mega Man asked, remembering the monstrosity he had faced before.

"A one armed bandit. He was just captured by Sigma. He's of no consequence really. And again, it took you about a day to answer. Is there some time differential on your end? My name is Dr. Cain."


	4. Chapter 4: Future

Chapter 4: Future

"It's been a hundred years since Wily died. I just discovered his lab a couple of years ago. I uncovered this communicator and activated it a week ago." Cain continued.

"Then there is a time differential. Dr. Magnus, Superman, I've got to get back there, what if this much time is passing in my dimension? Dr. Cain, is there a dimension portal generator in there?"

There was a short pause. "Sorry I haven't responded in a while. Sigma went reploid. There was an outbreak of reploids and Zero had to take care of them. In answer to your question, yes. I can even activate it to its last known coordinates."

"Please," Mega Man said. "Activate it. I need to get back there where time is slower."

"Very well," Cain said. "I've calculated the time differential. It will open up in two minutes your time.

"I'd better get you back to the Daily Planet," Superman said. Magnus looked like he was already busy at his computer. He grabbed a memory stick and handed it to Mega Man.

"My data on living machines." he said. "It was a pleasure, but I'm sure you've got to hurry."

"Thanks," Mega Man replied. "It _was_ a pleasure." With that, Superman grabbed him and flew to the Daily Planet. They crossed six states and were there in thirty seconds. Mega Man fell over form dizziness. "I'll never get used to that," he said.

"Not much time for goodbyes here," Superman said. "But it was nice to meet you. I hope you find your way home."

"It was nice to meet you too," Mega Man responded. "Just knowing there's a person like you in some dimension, I feel safer." Superman smiled.

He reached into a hidden pocket in his cape and pulled out a small metallic S emblem. "This might be corny," he said. "I give these to kids sometimes. Something they can remember me by."

"No," Mega Man said, grabbing the emblem. "It isn't corny at all." Mega Man stood by where he originally fell out of the portal. Within moments it opened and he fell back through

The journey through the barrier felt rough, but no rougher than it had before. Within moments Mega Man found himself back in Dr. Wily's lab. The lab was very different this time, however: covered over in dust in some areas, cleaned in others, markers in various places indicating a dig site. Mega Man stood up.

"Good," Dr. Cain said. "You made it through. I could barely keep it open that long."

"Yes," Mega Man said. Mega Man was a bit perplexed as to why the guy seemed upset at him for taking so long, as if he had any control over the time differential, but he remained polite. "Thanks for bringing me back here."

"Yes, yes, you're welcome." Dr. Cain paused. "Hold on a minute. Zero's coming in." Indeed, suddenly a red beam of light came through the ceiling, materializing into a red robot. His design resembled a hybrid of Bass and Protoman.

"I got the last part!" Zero shouted. He was holding the head of X. "The reploid Serges had it." Suddenly Zero's focus shifted over to Mega Man. "What the? You…" he paused. "You look like X, but not like X. Who is this, Dr. Cain?"

"It's Mega Man, apparently." Cain responded.

"Mega Man?" Zero asked.

"He's a robot from the past. According to the files I checked, he was either Dr. Wily's greatest enemy or his greatest friend. There are lots of conflicting reports. Oh, and some aliases: Quint, Mega Man B. It's all pretty vague."

"Well where did he come from?" Zero asked. "How can you be so academically detached?"

"If I may interject" Mega Man began.

"No, not necessary," Cain interrupted. "He came from some other dimension Wily was communicating with. There was some time differential. I figured I could get a chance to look at some technology even older than yours. Most of that stuff was either completely destroyed or left Earth."

"But I" Mega Man began again.

"Why does he look like X?" Zero cut Mega Man off.

"Because-" Mega Man tried to answer.

"I don't know!" Cain responded. "He's probably a prototype."

"EXCUSE ME!" Mega Man shouted. Zero and Dr. Cain turned towards him. "I AM capable of speaking."

"I'm sorry," said Zero. Dr. Cain just grunted and went to work on a console.

"It's alright," the blue bomber responded. "It's just I'm a lot more in the dark then you are on the situation. I'll be happy to explain who I am. I just need some help."

"Ok," said Zero as he handed X's head to Dr. Cain. "Tell me all about it."

"My name is Mega Man." he said. "I wound up in this dimension over one hundred years ago through some accident. As far as I know the other version of me is a prototype for X. He and I were both created by different versions of the same man."

Zero's face turned more serious. He looked up at Mega Man. "Who?" he asked. "We have been trying to figure out where X came from. He's neither Maverick nor Reploid. You know who built him?"

"Yes," Mega Man responded. "The same guy who built me."

"You just said that!" Zero said a little frustrated. "But what was his name?"

"I…" Mega Man sat down on the floor. "I don't remember. Data corrupted."

"That's impossible," Cain spoke up from across the room, working on X. "That kind of data is non volatile. It is incorruptible, unless whoever built you was a moron."

"Doc," Zero said. "You've really got to work on your manners." Dr. Cain just waved at Zero to leave him be. "Mega Man, we've got to figure this out, but I don't have time right now. Sigma has unleashed a lot of reploids and I've got one more to take care of before I can get to him: Crystal Snail."

"I don't know who that is" Mega Man said, "but I can tell that you're one of the good guys. Let me help."

"No offense," Zero said. "But you are ancient technology. I doubt your shots can even penetrate their armor."

"Could Dr. Cain upgrade my weaponry?" Mega Man asked.

Cain sneered a bit. "I'm an archaeologist, not a robotologist. I restore things, I even fix things. I patent technology I find and then get production facilities to make it. I don't have a damn clue how to upgrade a blaster. I haven't even studied your configuration yet."

"We can talk about this later," Zero said. "But I've got to get out of here. Dr. Cain, see if you can stop being a jerk and update this guy on the situation."

"Fine," Dr. Cain said, as Zero teleported away. "I am being a bit of a jerk, I apologize. I'm not a social person."

"It's OK," said Mega Man.

"So here's some history 101 for you." Cain began. "About three years ago I discovered this lab on an archaeological dig. I made the greatest discovery of our time, Zero. He was a free willed robot, capable of making its own decisions. I of course patented this technology, and reproduced it with Zero's help. Things were great. Given their free nature we called these robots Mavericks. Some time after production had begun however, many of the robots turned against us. They were the opposite of free will. It was as if they were being controlled by some outside force. The robots lost their moral decision making abilities but retained their AI. They came to be known as Reploids, because they were all replications of the same will. So we formed reploid hunters, of which Sigma was the best."

"And now you're fighting Sigma?" Mega Man asked.

"Yes, I'm getting to that." Cain replied. "A one armed robot named X appeared and started wreaking havoc on mavericks of all types. Who created him and why he had one arm destroyed was a mystery. Eventually Sigma found and defeated him. When he awoke X was behaving quite rationally and had no memory of anything. Sigma, however, seemed to have contracted the Reploid virus. He sent out eight powerful Reploids as well as Vile. Zero eventually defeated them, with X's help, and X sacrificed himself to help Zero defeat Vile. Now Sigma has returned and a group known as the Zero hunters have appeared with X's salvaged parts. As you can see, X just recovered those. by the way, everything I just said before you interrupted me happened between the first time I contacted you and when you slipped in through the portal."

"Wow," was all Mega Man could say.

"Wow indeed." Cain said. "Too bad you can't remember anything about X."

"Oh no," Mega Man said. "I remember everything about him. I'm the one who blew his arm off."

"That's interesting," a voice said before Cain could respond. Cain and Mega Man turned to see the fully operational trio of Serges, Agile, and Violen. "That's _extremely _interesting."


	5. Chapter 5: Outclassed

Chapter 5: Outclassed

The look on Dr. Cain's face said everything Mega Man needed to know. He released a fully charged shot at Violen, who was in the front of the group. The shot harmlessly bounced off.

"Ha-ha, what?" Violen laughed.

"So you say you blew off X's arm, eh?" Serges asked. "I'm finding that a little unlikely." Mega Man released another charged shot, this time striking Agile. It again bounced off harmlessly. "Give that a rest," Serges said, firing some energy all over the room. Mega Man instinctively jumped in front of Cain to make sure he wasn't hit. One of the energy blasts struck him and knocked him to the ground. It took away about a third of his health.

"Your claim is ridiculous." Agile added. "Kill them both, then destroy the lab." He directed his companions. Mega Man grabbed Dr. Cain and tried to activate his teleporter. It failed. Violen slowly advanced towards the blue bomber. Mega Man had to think quickly. These were hopeless odds. Dr. Cain wrenched himself free of Mega Man and ran to another corner of the room where he activated a trap door.

"Hey, good luck Mega Man," he said. "Sorry."

"Wait!" Mega Man shouted, turning his attention back towards the three reploids. "I'm obviously no threat to you. There's no reason to destroy me."

"It'll be fun," Violen suggested.

"There's no good reason!" Mega Man exclaimed. The reploids stopped listening at this moment. Violen suddenly threw a large mace at Mega Man. He narrowly avoided it by sliding. The mace hit the table X's body was on, knocking his parts to the floor.

"Fool!" Agile admonished. "Be careful!"

"Sorry," Violen said. Mega Man thought to himself. If they were after X's parts, that was the only solution. Mega Man ran towards X, and pushed the table he had been placed on down for cover.

"I've got these parts over here." He shouted from behind cover, gripping X's legs and torso. "I have no problem destroying them, so don't try anything!"

"Oh, don't worry," Serges said. "We don't need them. They're duplicates. All we need is the control chip, which I just picked up while you were hiding there." He paused for a moment. "Violen, would you go ahead and hurry this up?"

Violen walked over to the table Mega Man was hiding behind and tossed it over his head. He was greeted by a large swirling pink energy shot that sent him reeling. There stood Mega Man, covered in white armor plating. X's body was back to its original blue. Before anyone could react, Mega Man released two more super shots into Violen, simultaneously. Mega Man always had two arm cannons but only rarely used them both at the same time, because doing so could burn his own energy. In such a situation with the odds stacked so completely against him, it was worth a shot. The blast knocked the huge Violen back a couple of meters, causing him to fall on his back.

"What the hell?" Serges asked, firing more of his shots all over the room. Mega Man began to slide under, but a shot just managed to clip him. This time it took only two units of health.

"I absorbed it…" Mega Man said, halfway talking to the reploids and halfway talking to himself. "The systems were compatible. I absorbed the weapons and armor systems." Violen got up and threw his giant mace again. It was too big to jump over and too close to the ground to slide. Mega Man suddenly jumped onto a wall and then off again, gaining enough height to clear. He released another fully charged shot into Violen. "I even absorbed the motivation systems."

"Absorb this!" Agile commanded, striking Mega Man with his sword. It did a decent amount of damage and disoriented Mega Man enough to prevent counter fire. The situation hit Mega Man again. These upgrades were amazing but it was still three against one, and there didn't seem to be any good strategies. Mega Man concentrated on Serges and Agile, aiming his cannons at the two of them while charging. As they fired at him he dashed back, suddenly spun around and shot Violen with two more shots. Violen was knocked into a wall this time. Mega Man saw his own energy start to decrease. His body was only made to output a certain amount at a time. Two of these super charged shots were quite a strain.

Violen charged angrily at him and the other two reploids fired their weapons. Mega Man dashed around Violen and used him for cover, letting the other weapons strike the reploid. Then he released two more charged shots into him. Violen looks at his energy gauge.

"I wasn't expecting a fight here guys," he said. "I didn't even fully charge my energy before comin'!" Mega Man fired another super charged shot, but this time Violen actually managed to dodge it.

"Fine, then leave." Agile ordered. "You're just getting in the way."

"I'm going too," Serges said. "We got what we came for, this is a waste of time."

"Fine," Agile repeated as the other two teleported away. "There's something very interesting about you," Agile said. "You look a lot like X, especially with that armor. You're a prototype aren't you?"

Mega Man decided to talk to buy some time in case this guy was too tough to beat, even though the odds had just swung heavily in Mega Man's favor. "Yes." he responded. "X is an advanced version of me."

Agile grinned. "Then you are fighting on the wrong side. His creator, your creator… he's our creator too. He created the wonderful reploid virus which showed us the light."

"It's complicated," Mega Man began, "but even though I'm the prototype, the men who created us were very different people."

"That's too bad." Agile said. "You have tremendous ability for a robot so ancient. You would have made a fine addition to our side."

"I don't want a side, I don't care" Mega Man said. "I just want to go home." Mega Man was a little shocked at himself because for a moment, he really did feel that he didn't care.

"Don't worry, little robot." Agile said. "I'll send you to meet your maker." The fight was on. Agile was the polar opposite of Violen. Fast, efficient, and smart. Mega Man did everything he could to dodge his attacks, but it was not easy. Getting a shot to hit him was even more difficult. And every missed shot, every dodged blow did damage to the surrounding lab. After a fight that seemed to go on for minutes and several traded blows Mega Man was down to a fifth of his health. He couldn't tell how much damage he had done to Agile, though he could tell he was hurting him. The fight raged back and forth, and Mega Man suddenly found himself standing in front of the portal device.

"Oh no," he thought. Agile charged, swinging his sword. Mega Man wanted to dodge, but couldn't. He couldn't risk the portal being destroyed. Instead he released a fully charged shot the moment of impact, ensuring the maximum damage possible. After taking the blow Mega Man found himself with one unit of energy left. He dashed away from the portal as fast as possible.

"Were you…" Agile started. "Were you purposefully protecting this machinery? You could have dodged." Agile held his sword to the machine.

"No!" Mega Man shouted. He fired a fully charged shot at Agile. Agile jumped over it. The shot barely missed the machine itself. Suddenly Mega Man found himself shifting back to his blue tint. "Oh no," he said, this time aloud.

"Oh yes," Agile grinned. "Looks like you ran out of juice there." Mega Man checked his energy readouts. Indeed, those upgrades had been running on weapon energy, and he had just run out. Mega Man fired a regular charged shot, quite fruitlessly, as it just bounced off of Agile.

"Please," Mega Man begged. "That's the only thing that can get me home."

Agile swung his sword, destroying the portal. "And now it's gone!" he taunted.

"No!" Mega Man shouted. He ran blindly at Agile, firing rapidly and having no effect. Agile smiled and readied his sword to strike the finishing blow. Suddenly, Agile exploded.

"What?" Agile said, his head landing on the ground intact. "Im… Impossible." Agile's head teleported away. Mega Man stood there in shock. As the smoke from the explosion cleared, he could see Dr. Cain standing across the room behind where Agile had been. He was holding an energy sword.

"I don't believe that worked." he said. "You must have gotten him closer to the brink than you thought."

Mega Man sat down. "You came back and saved Me." he said.

"Yeah," Dr. Cain confirmed. "Guess I'm not such a jerk after all."

Mega Man put his hand on the remains of the portal device. "Now I'm stuck here forever." he said.

"I guess so," Cain said. "Well, if what they said was true and they absconded with X's control chip, we may need you. I saw it all from the panic room."

Mega Man's mood suddenly shifted. His face turned into a large smile. "Wait." he said.

"What is it?" Cain asked.

"I just absorbed the portal device as a weapon."


	6. Chapter 6: Crashed

Chapter 6: Crashed

"Great." said Cain. "Get out of here then."

"I'm sorry?" Mega Man asked.

"Oh, that came out wrong." Cain said. "I mean I give you my blessing to use it if you wish. We can handle ourselves here. We lost the X control chip but I'm sure Zero can handle it. It's a drastic situation but we're winning. I don't want to keep you from your goal."

"Well, thanks doc." Mega Man said, standing up.

"Be warned," Cain added. "I had a colleague of mine more versed in this kind of thing take a look at the portal before I first activated it. The matter it used to make a resonance with a particular dimension was corrupted. I suspect if you are still using your own matter, it is even more corrupted by now."

"Does that mean it won't lead me home?" Mega Man asked.

"Not necessarily," Cain added. "It's just every time you use it, the chances will lower. The matter will become more corrupted with the material from the dimensions you enter."

"Is this corruption why I'm losing my memory?" Mega Man asked.

"One again," Cain reminded, "I am an archaeologist. I have no earthly idea. Sounds like a good enough idea to me, though."

"So I guess this is goodbye then," Mega Man said. "Tell Zero it was nice to meet him, and sorry I lost the X chip. Thanks for saving me."

"Hold your horses, Mega Man," Cain rebuked. "Look at yourself. You're an errant plasma bolt away from blowing up." Mega Man remembered his energy gauge.

"Oh yeah…" Mega Man said a little embarrassed.

"Come on, I know how to fill your energy reserves, your weapon energy too." Mega Man went over to a standard energy refill capsule.

"This is great. With weapon energy I should be able to refill what I took from X. I don't suppose you have any E or W tanks?"

"What?' Cain asked. "That's absurd. Those are a complete waste of energy, non renewable." They kind of were a huge waste of energy, but had saved his life many times in the past. Mega Man didn't want to argue the point, however.

"Ok," said the blue robot, "guess it is time for me to take my leave." Dr. Cain waved, and then as if completely uninterested began picking up some debris in the lab. Mega Man turned black and white and fired a portal onto the wall. He stepped through. A moment later the portal closed.

Mega Man found himself on what seemed to be some kind of highway. It was obscenely wide and stretched on farther than his eye could see. He was at one edge of the highway, and noticed that it was floating in the sky, miles above what looked like a city. It was hard to tell at this distance. In any event it was much further down than he could safely jump. This was obviously not his home dimension. Mega Man prepared to fire another portal, but his weapon energy was already gone. "Only one shot?" Mega Man thought. He would have to get more energy to fire it again. With no frame of reference, Mega Man began wandering down the highway. After a few moments he saw several figures in the distance approaching. Before he could begin to try and make out what they were, they were already nearly upon him. Mega Man's eyes widened and he instinctually slid. Something crashed into the railing right where Mega Man was standing, sailing just over his head and down towards the city below. Mega Man then jumped, noticing several more vehicles pass by, one directly under him. It was over, or so Mega Man thought, as a second later a huge burst of sound erupted, nearly deafening him. It would have deafened any human. The sonic boom actually did non trivial damage.

Mega Man began running at top speed, in the same direction he was traveling. It was not long at all, maybe only two minutes or so, before he saw another vehicle approaching from the distance. The vehicle was blue with a cockpit much like a jet. Mega Man braced himself for the sonic boom when the vehicle slowed and stopped next to him. The cockpit opened. "Get in, now!" A man shouted. He was wearing a blue uniform with a red helmet/sunglasses combination. Mega Man didn't hesitate and jumped in as fast as he could. The cockpit closed. Whatever the vehicle was, it was a one seater, so it was pretty uncomfortable for mega man to cram himself behind the seat. The car rocketed forward.

"You have no idea what kind of insane shortcut I had to take to get here this far ahead" he said. Mega Man saw a billboard in the distance as the car accelerated. "Mute City" it said. "How the hell did you get yourself onto an F-zero track?" the man asked. Before Mega Man could answer, the vehicle they were in was being bombarded on both sides by attacks. Cars were passing rapidly, ramming them at each opportunity. "Damn it1" said the man. "I knew this was gonna cost me the lead."

Mega Man finally spoke. "I'm sorry, I didn't expect to wind up on a race track!" he shouted. The man concentrated on driving. "I'm guessing you won't be able to catch up with my extra weight."

"Don't count me out, kid," the man replied. "I'm Captain Falcon." The car took a sudden burst of speed forward. The ride was getting less and less smooth.

"Mega Man." he replied. "It's nice to meet you, I'm sorry about this." Captain Falcon continued to focus on his driving. Mega Man spotted an energy gauge on the car and noticed it was extremely low. Looking up, he saw the car catching up to another one in front of them. It looked like some kind of pink hover vehicle with dual cockpits. Falcon came up on their left and suddenly veered hard into them. The other car began to be rocked with explosions. The energy gauge in the car went up a little. Mega Man was shocked. "Did you just kill those guys?"

"They have escape pods," Falcon replied. In a few seconds the car had already rammed through three more competitors and gained more energy. Falcon activated the turbo boost again. Mega Man noted that the energy gauge went down from this. Suddenly the car swerved over some pink, glowing ground. The energy gauge went noticeably back up. More importantly to Mega Man, his weapon energy went up a little.

"Wait, can you go back there?" Mega Man asked as they drove off of the pink ground.

"Are you insane?" Falcon asked. "That will cost me this entire tournament." Falcon was visibly frustrated. Mega Man could see a slew of cars out in front, and they were not gaining any ground, even with turbo boosts. "Hold onto your butt," Falcon said. "I'm gonna try a shortcut. I barely made it last time, so with your weight, we'll probably crash and burn into the city."

"Then don't do it!" Mega Man chided. "It's just a race!"

"You have no idea" Falcon replied. A sharp turn was ahead, almost ninety degrees. Beyond the turn was a ramp a small gap. To get across one would have to make a precise turn and speed back up to hit the ramp fast enough. Mega Man saw several of the lead cars do it easily. Falcon began accelerating.

"You can't make that turn at this speed!" Mega Man shouted. "We'll go right off the edge and never even hit the ramp!" Falcon didn't listen, and accelerated as much as he could. The energy gauge for the vehicle was at zero with one last boost. Falcon reached out with his arm and pushed a lever. Control jets fired from the left side of the car, sending it to the right, but maintaining its forward orientation. It was enough to hit the ramp, but Captain Falcon wasn't even headed towards the pit, he was headed off the track entirely, still having not turned at all. The car looked like it would be heading right to the earth many miles below. Falcon's car proved to be exceedingly aerodynamic however, and Mega Man saw more track coming up in the distance. Captain Falcon was trying to skip an entire section of track!

The car just had too much weight and not enough speed. Mega Man could see that it would barely miss if he was calculating correctly. He concentrated for a moment that felt like a year. Mega Man turned solid blue, the same blue as the car, and activated whatever it was he had just absorbed. A magnetic force erupted beneath the robot, pushing the car up just a little more. It made the jump. Mega Man had absorbed the hover systems of the car. The Blue Falcon, as the car happened to be named, landed back on track having skipped a significant portion. They were headed right towards the finish line, out in front. It suddenly stopped hovering and landed on the ground, skidding with a horrible noise. Mega Man neglected that by absorbing the hover systems, he had _absorbed_ the hover systems. He fired it again, bouncing the car and allowing it to continue forward for a couple of seconds before it crashed to the ground and continued skidding again, still at super high speeds. The car began to be rocked with explosions.

"We've got to eject!" Mega Man shouted.

"No way!" Falcon objected. "We're nearly there!" The Blue Falcon skidded closer and closer, slower and slower towards the line. Mega Man dare not use the hover weapon for fear of exacerbating the explosions. Four cars suddenly passed Falcon: a green ovular one, a streamlined design with pink flames, a yellow car that looked a bit like some kind of space taxi, and out in front a solid black, heavy looking car. The Falcon skidded to a halt mere meters in front of the finish line as the explosions began to rock the interior. Falcon lowered his head and reached for the eject key. Suddenly the car was hit from behind by a nearly identical, but red vehicle. It caused the Falcon to cross the finish line just before Captain Falcon hit eject.

Falcons frown turned to a smile. "Blood Falcon, you idiot," he continued to smile. "You just ensured I can still win this thing!" The cockpit, along with Mega Man and Captain Falcon flew upwards, with "5th Place" flashing on the display screen. "I have enough points to continue," he smiled again.

"That's great," Mega Man said, as the cockpit began to float gently towards the city with a safety parachute. "Now do you think you could get me over that pink ground?"

Falcon looked back over his shoulder. "Only place to find that stuff is on an F-zero track. Only way to get on an F-zero track is to race a car."

"Umm," Mega Man began.

"So I figure you owe me one for saving your life and taking fifth place back there," Falcon interrupted. "Wanna help me defeat Black Shadow?"


	7. Chapter 7: Winners

Chapter 7 – Winners

As the pod floated down, Mega Man told Captain Falcon his story as Falcon adjusted thrusters to land in a safe area. By the time Mega Man had finished explaining, the remains of the Blue Falcon had floated to the ground, in a parking lot, outside of a bar: "The Winner's Circle".

"Let's go get a drink," Captain Falcon said, popping the cockpit open and hopping out.

"A drink?" Mega Man asked, hopping out himself. "Were you listening to me? I'm a robot."

"Well then come watch me drink." Falcon said. "I'm feeling good after that race; let me explain some things to you." Mega Man sighed and followed Falcon to the door. Standing outside the bar was a skeleton in a leather jacket.

"You think that's funny, Falcon?" it asked. "Landing your heap right in the lot?"

"I have to admit," Falcon said, "I do think it's pretty funny. What's your problem, Skull?"

"Maybe it has something to do with you knocking people out of the race left and right?" he answered.

"If by people, you mean you, Skull. And it seems to me you knocked yourself out of the race."

Skull sat silently for a moment and then eyed Mega Man. "He's not twenty one. No way." he said.

"Mega Man, are you twenty one?" Falcon asked. Mega Man opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted. "Of course he's twenty one, Skull." Falcon continued. "Step aside." Skull relented, and Mega Man followed Captain Falcon inside the Winner's Circle. Mega Man of course was built with the frame of a twelve year old, though at this point he was mentally much older. He had never seen a place of such debauchery upon entering the bar. Smoke filled the room; empty bottles were slung all over the place. Television screens were tuned to death races and neon signs placed a hazy hue over everything. Falcon shook an old man's hand. "Hey pops," he said. "Enjoy the race?"

"Oh, it was exciting," the old man replied. "They're replaying your stunt all over the news. I can't believe you stopped in the middle of the race and still got fifth place!"

"Would have gotten first if my hover module hadn't gone out," Falcon responded. Mega Man twiddled his thumbs and looked in another direction at this remark. He wasn't sure if the Captain knew exactly why that had happened. "Mega Man this is Silver Neelsen, retired F-Zero pilot. Neelsen, this is Mega Man."

"Quite a name you got there, kid" the old man said. "Forgive me for not bending down to shake your hand; I just might not be able to bend back up again."

"That's quite alright." Mega Man said. "Captain, were we going to talk about getting me back up onto that track?"

"Nope," the Captain replied. "Private booth, please," he said to Neelsen. He and Mega Man were led to a smaller private section of the bar. "The next course is Big Blue. It's the Ordeal course to be exact. The only way on is to be in the race."

"You can't just give me a ride to one of the pink sections?" Mega Man asked.

"These courses are highly restricted," Falcon answered. "You can only get there as a certified competitor in a race. And I can't afford to lose another race; I can't take your extra weight."

"Why is winning so important to you?" Mega Man asked.

"I'm locked in a battle for first place in the GP with a man named Black Shadow. The prize money is enormous. Black Shadow is an intensely evil man. If he wins the GP and the prize money his followers and power will increase exponentially."

"How much prize money could there possibly be?" Mega Man asked.

"Trillions," Falcon answered. "It's more than the GDP of this entire planet. Racing is everything in this galaxy."

"That's ridiculous," Mega Man said. "How can a multi-planet economy be built on the basis of people racing to death?

"I'm a bounty hunter, not an economist," Falcon replied. "If I win this GP I can take Shadow down a few pegs."

"And gain trillions of dollars?" Mega Man asked.

"I've already won this once before," Falcon assured. "After buying a testing facility, test courses, and building the latest versions of the Blue Falcon and the Great Falcon, and buying a few islands, I donated the rest to charity. I intend to do the same when I win this time."

"After buying all the necessities" Mega Man retorted.

"Look," Falcon said. "You can judge me all you want, but that won't get you your weapon energy. The only way to get on an F-zero course is to enter a race."

"And you can get me in?" Mega Man asked.

"In a manner of speaking," Falcon said. "Earlier I saw you change colors. Can you do that on the fly?"

"Usually my colors just match whatever weapon I'm equipping," said Mega Man. "But," he continued as his helmet and battle uniform flashed and were suddenly gone, leaving him in jeans and white tee shirt. "I can change the tone of anything I have: my clothes, my uniform, my skin, hair, and eyes." Mega Man accentuated this by changing his hair from brown to blonde, and by changing his skin to a darker tone.

"How'd you do that?" Falcon was impressed. "Where did your uniform go?"

"I have a teleportation system," Mega Man answered. "It converts me to an energy form for fast travel. It's meaningless here because all of the teleportation spots are preprogrammed in by an outside computer."

"Go on," Falcon said.

"Well, for most small items I need to carry with me, I can convert them into the same energy and put them into a small storage space in my back. Then I can simply teleport them out in front of me." Mega Man demonstrated by having his communicator and his 'S' emblem appear on the table. Both of the items felt important to Mega Man, however, and he quickly drew them back in. "It's big enough to carry my uniform, some civilian clothes, and a few small items."

"It's impressive technology," Falcon said.

"I have a question," Mega Man asked. "If you get me in the race, am I going to be able to just drive to the pink stuff and refill my weapon reserve, or is there going to be a catch?"

"Of course there's a catch," Falcon said. "I'm the only serious competitor within mathematical reach of beating Dark Shadow. I almost had it cinched until I had to take fifth place because of rescuing you."

"Once again, I'm sorry," Mega Man said, "and thank you."

"Actually that's the first time you've actually said thank you, not that I'm counting." Falcon continued. "The only way for me to take this thing is for me to place third and for Shadow to take third or below. I have a lot of rivals in there who would rather see me lose than to actually win themselves. I know they're going to scoop the second place and the victory to Dark Shadow if they possibly can. So I need someone on my side to come in second."

"No one dislikes Dark Shadow more than you?" Mega Man asked.

"There are quite a few racers out there who want to see me win over him," Falcon responded. "But the fact is they're mostly terrible drivers. I need all the help I can get. Samurai Goroh, Dr. Stewart, and Pico are the best and they are going to do anything to see me lose. We have a history. Just below them are Blood Falcon and Mr. E.A.D. Blood Falcon's actually a clone of me, bred to serve Dark Shadow. Mr. E.A.D. is a mystery. He's a robot but no one knows anything about the people who built him. He's a great pilot but he takes seventh place in every race, and I'm relatively sure he's doing it on purpose."

"So you want me, who has never piloted one of these before, to come in second place?" Mega Man asked.

"That's the idea," Falcon said. A large mug of some liquid was delivered to the table. "I saw you on the race track actually dodge by a car by sliding under it, and then jump over another." Falcon took a gulp of his drink. "You could only do something like that if you had reflexes bordering on precognition. If you can dodge a car on foot, you could be an amazing pilot."

"Maybe with heavy training," Mega Man said. "But the race is tomorrow," Mega Man saw a scrolling ad Marquee in the booth declaring the date of the Big Blue race.

"Well tell me," Falcon said, "do you have any experience racing?" He began to take another gulp.

"Go karts," Mega Man answered. Captain Falcon spit his drink out all over the place. "Well it was a go kart _death race_." he added.

"Good Lord," the Captain exclaimed. "Let's get to my private island. I activated my homing beacon a few minutes ago, my ship should be outside. We'll see what you can do in a real racing machine." Mega Man recalled his uniform and helmet. He and Captain Falcon began to walk outside. On the way out they were confronted by a fat man in a tank top wielding a katana.

"Hey Falcon, enjoy your loss today?" he asked.

"Out of my way, Goroh," Falcon ordered. Goroh held out his katana in a menacing manner.

"I'm going to kill you myself tomorrow." he said. Mega Man formed an arm cannon behind his back in case the fight escalated. He couldn't harm a human but he could easily vaporize a sword. "Word is Dark Shadow will pay anyone who knocks you out of the race 10 of the prize money. Maybe I'll knock you out of the race right now." Falcon remained calm and casually held his arms to his side.

"Falcon," Falcon said. He pulled his arm back like he was going to do something, but just stood there. There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"Uh, Captain Falcon?" Mega Man asked.

"What the hell?" Goroh asked, perplexed at the Captain's behavior.

"PUNCH!" the Captain shouted, moving his fist forward at an incredible speed. His hand almost seemed to be on fire from the movement. Goroh was hit square in the chest and knocked unconscious, landing in the gutter outside the bar. Captain Falcon and Mega Man walked over to the ship, Great Falcon.

"Some punch," Mega Man said. The Captain just smiled, staying silent for the flight. After about ten minutes travel, the two had landed at what appeared to be a test racing facility. Captain Falcon took Mega Man to a replica Blue Falcon and strapped him in.

"Now what?" Mega Man asked.

Captain Falcon stepped off the track and started a countdown for a test drive. "Show me your moves!"


	8. Chapter 8: Drive

Chapter 8: Drive

The floating light turned green. Mega Man put his foot on the accelerator. Nothing happened. "What?" he asked. "It isn't working!" he shouted into the cars radio.

"Press the accelerator." Falcon replied.

"I did," said Mega Man. He took his foot off the accelerator and placed it on the brake. The car rocketed forward. It caught Mega Man off guard, causing him to grab the wheel and twist it. In less than a second Mega Man had crashed into the wall of the track. It was a sturdy vehicle, however. It continued to take damage as Mega Man continued to hold his foot down and scrap against the barrier.

"What the hell?" Captain Falcon shouted, activating the vehicles emergency shutdown from his viewing location.

"Um, you know how I said I was losing my memory?" Mega Man asked. Falcon remained silent. "I think I forgot how to drive."

"Damn it," Falcon said. "Guess I'll have to teach you." The pair fetched a slower training vehicle, and Captain Falcon proceeded to attempt to teach Mega Man the fundamentals of driving. He figured that since this kid was a robot, he should be able to pick up such skills quickly and adapt. It shouldn't take too long to teach a machine how to do something well. He was incorrect. Mega Man had lost not only his ability to drive; he seemed to have lost the ability to even learn how. After a while Mega Man was just barely at the point of not crashing on a straightaway every five seconds. After hours of trying, Falcon just lowered his head and sighed.

"Look," he said. "There's obviously no way you can come in second place. Hell, there's no way you can even finish. You may still be able to help me out."

"Do you think I can reach the recharge strip?" Mega Man asked.

Falcon sighed again. "Probably not," he said, a little despondent. "You have to make it across a few jumps to even get there. If I manage to win I'll buy one of the tracks and get you up there."

"How can I help?" Mega Man asked.

"I was going to get you in by disguising you as Blood Falcon and having you take his place. With your color change you could make a reasonable facsimile with that helmet." Falcon said.

"That's ridiculous," he answered. "The guy's a clone of you. I'd be half his size. It wouldn't fool anyone.

"Your head is about the same size as his," Falcon said, "and from the camera angles they shoot this thing at, that's all anyone will see. And it will only be seen from a distance at that. You could pull it off."

"I suppose entry is closed, so I have to take someone's place?" Mega Man asked.

"Yes, and if you take Blood Falcon's that will be a slight load off my back, seeing how he tries to kill me in every race. Plus his car is a near copy of mine, which you've already practiced with."

"If you need Black Shadow to finish poorly why not just take his place?" Mega Man asked.

"Trust me on this," Falcon began, "Dark Shadow is not a man to be messed with; at least not directly. He'd make what I did to Goroh look like a pat on the back."

"So to get this straight," Mega Man stated. "Your plan is for me to steal Blood Falcon's car, and just sit there, seeing as how I can't race."

"Yeah, that's it, unfortunately." Falcon said. "Unless you have a better idea, that's pretty much all you can do for me. You've got no racing talent, an inability to learn, and I severely doubt you're going to absorb racing ability through osmosis."

A spark lit in Mega Man's brain. "Wait a second," he stopped Falcon who was beginning to leave toward the practice field. "Tell me more about this Mr. E.A.D."

The next morning was bright. A few white clouds peppered the sky here and there. It was perfect weather for the picturesque Big Blue course. Captain Falcon and Mega Man got up early to set their plans in motion. They arrived at the GP's official garage for the Big Blue series of courses. Here was where pilots initiated final tune-ups and adjustment to their machines before being airlifted to the race. High profile pilots had their own private garages within the garage. Falcon watched the entrance to Shadow's garage carefully. After a while his patience was rewarded by seeing Black Shadow exit the garage to take a look around.

"Mega," Falcon said into a radio. "Shadow is mobile. Initiate plan Bleeding Falcon."

Mega Man responded "OK" by tapping his radio mike in Morse code. He was currently in an EAD garage, spying on Mr. E.A.D. tuning his vehicle. Mr. E.A.D. was one of the strangest robots Mega Man had ever seen. He was built in the form of an absurdly fat man with a pointy mustache and a ridiculous space suit. Mega Man was proved incorrect in his assumption that nothing could out weird Centaur Man. Mega Man noted the security cameras around the room. He could not walk more than a few steps in without being seen. He began charging a shot. The low hum of charging caused Mr. E.A.D's mustache to perk up. Mega Man slinked back a little, out of view. "Come on," he thought. Mr. E.A.D stepped away from his vehicle momentarily, and towards the noise. Mega Man activated his X power and climbed the wall, waiting for the rotund robot to round the corner. It suddenly stopped short, however, just before stepping outside the view of the cameras. Mega Man couldn't make a move. If there was any alert as to what he was about to do, the whole plan would be ruined. He wondered if E.A.D was smart enough that it foresaw something like this that made it stick to the cameras. Mega Man saw the cameras tracking E.A.D's movements as it looked around, decided nothing was over here, and turned to go back to its car. He released a few regular shots towards a far wall of the room along the ceiling. The cameras turned to try and track the movement of the shots. "Lucky break" he thought. As they were pointed at the other end of the room, Mega Man dropped down onto E.A.D's head and swung his arms as hard as he could, knocking the robot unconscious. He quickly dragged the robot out of camera range. "I hope this works" he thought as he pressed his arm to the robot. Within a few moments Mega Man turned silver and gray, having absorbed the robot's driving skill. He kept the skill equipped but quickly changed his colors back to Blood Falcon's, and hopped in a ventilation shaft.

After a little crawling Mega Man found himself over Black Shadow's private garage. No cameras could be seen. "Good" the robot thought. "It figures he wants to do things in here without surveillance." Down below the ventilation grate he could see Blood Falcon sitting in his vehicle, the Blood Hawk. Parked a few meters away was an empty Black Bull. A display screen near the garage door indicated that a carrier was on its way to take the Hawk to the track. It was time to can the subtle approach. Mega Man jumped down onto the canopy of the Blood Hawk and used his strength to force it open. There was a brief look of shock and confusion on the clone's face, when his face suddenly turned to an evil smile. Blood Falcon jumped right out of the Blood Hawk and grabbed Mega Man's shoulders before he could react. He then kicked him in the chest with the force of an explosion, doing a back flip and landing smoothly on the garage floor below. Mega Man was thrown to the floor. "Great," he thought. "This guy can fight, and I can't use any of my weapons without killing him. He heard the radio in his helmet crackle to life at this point.

"Mega, he's on his way back." the Captain said. "You've got to hurry. I'll try and distract him." Mega Man noted the time limit as he pulled himself off the floor. Captain Falcon took a gulp and walked out in front of Black Shadow. "Shadow," he said. "I'd like a word."

"Step aside" Shadow commanded, quickly lifting his arm and striking the Captain with the back of his hand. The blow sent him reeling a few steps out of the villain's way. He continued to walk forward, but found himself being yanked by the neck as Captain Falcon's foot planted itself on his cape, holding it to the ground. Black Shadow pulled his cape out from under the Captain, tripping him and knocking him prone. Shadow turned to face him. "You must want to die very badly," he growled.

Captain Falcon tried to figure out something he could say of interest. "No, I just needed to tell you I was wrong about you." The look on Black Shadow's face shifted ever so slightly, as if under his mask he had just lifted an eyebrow. "You're an amazing racer, regardless of your tactics," Falcon continued. "In just a one on one race, without other elements, I'm not sure I could ever beat you."

While one Falcon was busy stroking Dark Shadow's ego, the other was busy wiping the floor with Mega Man. The robot warrior had simply never gained much of an affinity for hand to hand combat, which Blood Falcon seemed unstoppable in. In the short fight, Blood Falcon had already taken about half of Mega Man's energy hitting him with powerful blows and giving him no chance to retaliate. Even if he could get some distance, Mega Man couldn't bring himself to fire a shot. Blood Falcon threw Mega Man in the air with a wicked grin. "Blood…" he began. Mega Man was pretty sure that would be a version of the Falcon punch, which looked painful. Worse, being thrown in the air he had no recourse to avoid it, he was falling right towards him. "Punch!" shouted Blood Falcon. His attack found nothing but air. Mega Man had utilized the hover system he absorbed from the Blue Falcon. Missing on an attack like a Falcon Punch left the clone wide open. Mega Man de-activated his hover and fell onto his opponent, unleashing a mighty overhand swing to the back of his head. The clone went out like a light. He was, after all, only human. After stuffing Blood Falcon back in the ventilation shaft and jumping into the Blood Hawk, Mega Man tapped his communicator to signal he was done.

"Oh wait," the Captain said. "Actually you're a loser who cheats and uses flunkies and intimidation to keep your opponents at bay for you. I was confusing you with some…" Falcon was quickly interrupted by Black Shadow grabbing his throat and lifting him into the air.

"You are an arrogant fool," he said. "First I will destroy your soul in the race, and then I will destroy your body." He squeezed the Captain's neck to accentuate the point and then tossed him aside and continued into his private garage. There he saw the Blood Hawk being lifted by a transport to the track, and stepped into the Black Bull.

"Good work," the Captain said into his radio, a little raspy. "These radios are not going to work on the track, so you're on your own. If E.A.D's racing ability works for you do everything you can to beat Black Shadow. If not, I pray you can make it to the energy strip."

Minutes later thirty cars were out on the track, and the race was preparing to begin. In F-Zero circuit races pilots were placed in reverse order of how they finished the last race. This placed Black Shadow in last, followed by Samurai Goroh, Dr. Stewart, and Pico. Next was Captain Falcon, followed by Mega Man in Blood Falcon's place, and then Mr. E.A.D, who seemed to have managed to wake up and get in his ship before the race began. This gave Mega Man and Falcon a slight advantage, being ahead of their main competition to start. All of the cars turned their engines on and began hovering in place, waiting to start.

"3… 2…" the countdown was interrupted by Mr. E.A.D. back in the 23rd position taking off like a madman. Before anyone could react his machine careened wildly through several of the racers ahead of him, turned around, and started heading towards the back. "1… Go!" the computer instructed as the carnage happened. Concentrating amidst the confusion, most pilots kicked their machines into high gear and took off. The racers from 24th position back narrowly avoided ramming into Mr. E.A.D's Great Star Machine, except for Black Shadow. He ran full force into it, causing it to explode. It cost him little momentum. Mega Man was using whatever power he had absorbed from Mr. E.A.D. earlier and letting it take full control. It felt more like he was watching himself drive than actually driving. To his surprise after only a few turns and a couple of jumps he was in first place. Then he saw that he was coming up on a pink energy strip. Mega Man braced himself and switched to the portal weapon. Suddenly it was once again as if he had no idea what he was doing. It took every ounce of concentration to keep from crashing into the wall, and he was swerving all over the place. By the time he finished passing over the energy refilling wall his health was full and his portal weapon had refilled itself about halfway. All the swerving made him lose speed, and he fell to fifth place behind Falcon, Shadow, Pico, and Stewart. Mega Man re-engaged the E.A.D. system and started racing competitively once more.

Captain Falcon, in the meantime, was doing well for himself. He had the lead over Black Shadow by a few car lengths, and was having no trouble maintaining it. He decided to take a risk. He swerved in front of Black Shadow, slowed his speed and began to spin his vehicle, charging the magnetics on both sides of his car. The attack struck, but seemed to merely glance off of the car, slowing Falcon down enough to lose a few places. Mega Man came from behind and overtook Falcon, followed by Samurai Goroh. As Goroh was passing, Captain Falcon jarred his car quickly to the right, hitting him with enough force to knock his car out of the race. Pico and Stewart had to swerve to avoid the wreckage, causing them to fall farther back.

Mega Man caught up to Black Shadow inside of a tunnel, and the tunnel continued upwards, growing narrower and narrower. Mega Man pulled alongside him and bashed into his right side, attempting to crush the car between himself and the wall. It caught Shadow completely off guard, being the car of his guard. The Black Bull was extremely sturdy and survived the blow, but slowed down. Before it could gain its speed back it was rammed into the same wall by the passing Blue Falcon. Dark Shadow looked at his low energy meter and noted his car was smoking. He took out his frustrations on Pico as the alien attempted to pass, knocking him right out of the race. Mega Man crossed the goal line in first to complete the first lap.

"You got boost power!" his computer shouted. With boost power Mega Man and Falcon began burning shield energy to increase their speed dramatically. The Black Shadow did not have the luxury, with its energy so low. Mega Man and Falcon began to take a substantial lead. As Captain Falcon came up to pass Mega Man, the blue bomber suddenly rocketed his car into his ally's. Captain Falcon was knocked off the track and barely managed to veer back on to the track below. Mega Man was shocked. He had no intention of doing that; it must have been the E.A.D. program. Falcon came up to pass again preparing to ram if necessary. Mega Man switched weapons for a moment so Falcon could pass, and then switched back to avoid losing too much time. They still both had a lead of a couple of seconds on Black Shadow, which was astounding. They reached the energy strip once more, and Mega Man once again loaded up on portal energy, sacrificing his driving skills, and nearly crashing. His lead was narrowed, but he got back to E.A.D. mode in time to keep it, and only needed a couple more bars of energy. Once Black Shadow passed the same energy strip he was able to start his own boosting. For the entire lap so far he had simply had to eliminate any vehicle trying to pass him. It was now a three car race. There were plenty of other cars left on the track, but they simply were not competing.

By the end of the second lap, Captain Falcon had about a half second lead over Mega Man, who had about a half second lead over Black Shadow. "Yeah!" the computer shouted again. "The final lap!" Mega Man smiled. He was actually going to make it. It might actually work! Suddenly he began to swerve all over the place. He was out of E.A.D. weapon energy.


	9. Chapter 9: Stakes

Chapter 9: Stakes

Black Shadow caught up to Mega Man, prepared to take him out. Luckily for the blue bomber his driving was too erratic and unpredictable. The Black Shadow elected to just pass him. Mega Man was quickly losing ground and in a few seconds would need to make a jump. Frustrated he hammered his fist on the dashboard. A hidden panel popped out from the force, with one switch. "Autopilot" it read. Mega Man smirked. He was in the car of a cheater. Mega Man quickly flipped the switch and let the Blood Hawk take control. It raced well and made the next series of jumps, but was not catching up to Black Shadow, probably by design. In fact, the Shadow was gaining ground considerably. Up ahead it appeared that Blue Falcon had a solid lead. The captain's only worry would have to be Mega Man. By the time Mega Man reached the pink energy strip, he was nearly a full second behind Black Bull. He could even see a few cars approaching from the rear. Mega Man filled his remaining portal energy then switched to EAD so he could fill it up as well. It wasn't filled to the brim, but it was full enough to activate. Mega Man turned on the AI while turning off the autopilot.

It was working. Mega Man appeared to be catching up now, but he was afraid ti might be too little, too late. "There wasn't much track to go", Mega Man thought as he entered the tunnel. Unsure of what to do, Mega Man flipped the autopilot back on, using EAD at the same time. The AI began to fight the autopilot. Mega Man was once again swerving back and forth along the track. He was ready to shut it off when he caught a look at his speedometer. It was not decreasing. In fact, it was increasing. Mega Man was beginning to move faster and faster in a way that made little sense to him. Somehow, oscillating the magnetic thrusters from left to right was causing the ship to accelerate. Mega Man didn't understand it, but he went with it. The race was coming to a close. Captain Falcon crossed the finish line taking first place. Mega Man was coming up behind Black Shadow rapidly, but the track was narrowing and there was nowhere to pass. "Snaking" as Mega Man was calling the left-right movement pattern, was also out of the question. The Blood Hawk was less than a car length behind the Black Bull. Mega Man improvised. He activated the last boost power and switched to the hover weapon, leaving the autopilot on to make it through the straightaway. Firing it his car was given a boost upward, landing on top of the Black Bull. The Black Bull activated its own boost power, which would be enough to end Mega Man flying off the back, but Mega Man had something else in mind. His shields were completely down, and he had been charging a Mega Buster shot. He fired it inside his own car, towards the back engine compartment. The explosion sent the Blood Falcon rocketing forward, over the Black Bull. The car flipped over from momentum and landed on the track, skidding toward the finish line. The same explosion had rocked Black Shadow into a wall, slowing him down. From his upside down view Mega Man could see the car advancing. He let forth a rapid fire of plasma fire, striking the car and taking out its hovering systems. Mega Man then operated the canopy controls, opening it up, which caused the Blood Falcon to flip back over, hovering through the finish line as it continued to explode. He had just gotten second place. The Black Bull skidded slowly towards the finish line, suddenly finding itself passed by several more opponents. Mega Man leapt out of the exploding vehicle, equipping the portal and firing it at the ground where he was about to land. He fell through the portal at supersonic speeds, hoping his momentum would not hurl him to his death wherever he wound up.

Mega Man was flung out of a portal in a desert. He was nearly ground level, so he immediately shot his hover weapon diagonally down and to his front. This was to keep from crashing into the ground and to slow him down, and it worked to an extent, slowing him down a little and keeping him in the air, but it was not enough. He continued to fire it in the same manner every time he started to fall. By the time he had fired it about a dozen times he had slowed his speed to about two hundred kilometers per hour, still recklessly fast by any standard. Mega Man switched over to the X armor and braced himself for impact. Overall, he was extremely fortunate to have ended up in the desert. Landing in a large pile of sand was a much softer impact than say, concrete, or solid earth. At his speed, however, it was still devastating. Mega Man bounced, rolled, and tumbled chaotically across the desert, leaving marks and trenches dotting the landscape for a few hundred meters before he came to a full stop. His energy was ok, but the physical damage was considerable. It took some considerable effort to move. After what seemed like an hour, Mega Man managed to stand. He had already deactivated the X armor after coming to a stop because it always felt a little draining. Looking around, Mega Man could see the lights of a city some distance away. It was night. He began limping towards it. The cushioned impact of the sand had indeed been a blessing, but it did not come without a cost. Sand, grit, and dust had managed to work its way inside of the robot during the tumble. The wear and tear Mega Man could feel inside of him was excruciating. He would need an oil bath and cleaning very soon, he knew. It was something he very rarely needed because he usually fought in sterile environments.

Mega Man limped towards the city for a few hours. Along the way he had reached a highway which he managed to follow. The city's name was Los Angeles. By this time Mega Man had also switched off his battle uniform, thinking it would be a good idea to remain less gaudy when possible. If cars and trucks driving by could see the little robot, they ignored him. Eventually he reached an exit ramp which led to another road, but more importantly a fuel station and a few restaurants. He limped into the fuel station.

At this point Mega Man had already realized this was not his world. The technology level of the things he had seen was too low. Then again, in at least one alternate universe there had been analogues of the people he knew. He questioned the cashier. "Hi," he said. "I'm looking for Wily labs?"

The clerk, a somewhat larger man replied "I've never heard of it. Isn't a little late for a kid your age to be out? Are your parents around?"

"I'm 30," Mega Man lied. "It's a genetic condition. Do you have a communication device I could use?"

"Umm," the employee spoke slowly. "No, sorry, but the bar across the street has a phone."

Mega Man thanked the worker and left. Indeed there was a bar across the street. There was a tall man outside who appeared to be a bouncer, so Mega Man was unsure if he'd be able to get in. He did figure that if he snuck in somehow, people would assume he had already passed any requirement to get in, so the blue bomber went around to the back of the bar. Here he saw something unexpected and horrifying. Two men were slowly cornering a woman who seemed to be screaming. No one inside could probably hear her because of the music. Mega Man ran towards them as they leapt on the woman. He punched one of the men in the side of the head sending them flying to the right, and the other he pulled off, tossing back a bit. The woman had some bruises but looked otherwise alright. "Run," Mega Man ordered. The woman complied and ran into a back door of the bar. Mega Man turned back to the man he had just thrown and grabbed him by the collar. "What were you trying to do?" Mega Man asked. His voice was filled with a little rage. He dealt with saving people all the time, but instances of seeing humans abusing humans were not the norm for him, and it filled him with a special anger. Then Mega Man saw the person's face. It was inhuman. There were strange ridges on the forehead, and soulless eyes. The oddest part of the creature was the fangs. It had fangs protruding from its mouth. Mega Man turned to look at the other one, but it was already gone from its spot. When he turned to face the one he was holding he was struck from the side by the other one, dropping the first. He started to form an arm cannon but stopped. If these things weren't human, they were at least flesh, and Mega Man wouldn't be shooting them. The strength of the blow to Mega Man was much more than he expected; it sent him reeling backwards. Before he could react the two creatures had jumped on him.

"A child," one said. "This is going to be even sweeter." It held Mega Man down with its arms and weight. Mega Man could tell that he had the superior strength, but the creature holding him down had better leverage, so he couldn't get out of the hold. The second creature leaned down to bite Mega Man on the neck. It was suddenly surprised and recoiled in shock as it chipped its tooth on the robot's metallic frame. Lying on his back Mega Man activated his slide, which surprised the creature on top of him, making him lose his grip. Mega Man jumped back up and kicked the first vampire in the face while it was still nursing its tooth wound. It had just popped into Mega Man's head: the word vampire. The tales and lore were not unpopular on his world, but they had never been imagined to be true. However, that would seem to be what these creatures were. The faces, the fangs, and attempting to bite him on the neck along with super strength seemed to confirm this. As he landed from his jump, the blue bomber twisted a little, falling to his knees. His leg injury was protesting his jump.

"What the hell are you?" The second vampire asked, grabbing Mega Man from behind and tossing him into the building. Now his back was against the wall and both vampires were blocking any avenue of escape, not that Mega Man thought they could particularly harm him. The question running through his mind was: Can I harm them? Mega Man could not harm living beings, but were these living beings? If not, did it even matter if they seemed to possess free will? Would unleashing plasma bolts at the undead be bending his ethics routines? Mega Man did not have long to question himself, as suddenly a figure jumped down from above, placing a wooden stake into the back of one of the vampires. The vampire and all of its clothing immediately turned to dust and fell to the ground.

"Angel!" The remaining vampire shouted and began to run. The man was tall, wearing a long dark trench coat with spiky hair.

"That's the name," he replied, as he reached into his coat and pulled out another stake, throwing it a good distance at the running creature, impaling it through its heart. Angel turned towards Mega Man, speaking in his low gruff voice. "And that's a good question: What are you?"


	10. Chapter 10: Souls

Chapter 10: Souls

"Were those… vampires?" Mega Man asked.

"Yes" the figure named Angel responded, pulling out a sword he had strapped to his back. "But you aren't human either," he added. Mega Man glanced at himself to see if he had any circuitry or wiring showing from his earlier tumble, but it didn't appear that way.

"How can you tell?" he asked. Angel's face suddenly morphed into that of a vampire's itself.

"Because I'm not human either," he responded. "I can smell it. Now I'm going to ask you one more time," Angel warned. "What are you?" Angel brandished his sword to further his point. It was a huge claymore, probably capable of even hurting Mega Man if swung with enough force.

"I'm…" Mega Man hesitated. "I don't know if you'll believe this, but I'm a robot; a living machine." Angel paused for a moment and put away his sword, reverting his face back to normal.

"You smell metallic," he said. "That could be it." The man pulled out a small device Mega Man recognized as a cell phone and dialed a number. He glanced in Mega Man's direction as if telling him not to move. "Cordy," he said. "Your vision was close, but when I got here she was already being saved by a boy robot." There was a short pause. "Yes, a robot." Another pause. "I saved the robot. I don't know, Cordy, he looks like a little boy." Angel paused for yet another moment before speaking again. "Ok, thanks. Bye." Angel finally turned back towards Mega Man. "I need you to come with Me." he said.

Mega Man backed away a step. "What's this about?" he asked.

"I have a friend who has visions. That's the reason I came to save that girl. The thing is, you weren't in her visions. Her visions are never wrong, which means you weren't supposed to be here."

"I wasn't," Mega Man said. "I'm from another dimension." Mega Man figured if this man was talking about visions, the idea of dimensions would not be alien to him.

"In that case you really need to come with me," he replied. Mega Man decided it would be best if he followed. Angel led him to a car, and Mega Man was struck by its beauty. It was a black 1968 Plymouth Belvedere convertible, and extremely similar to a vintage car on Mega Man's own world. Mega Man was always fascinated by older machinery; in a silly way it made him appreciate his own technology all the more. In any case he could say that this care was rare. "The name's Angel, by the way." Angel offered hand to Mega Man before getting in his car.

Mega Man decided to go with his normal name, as he was in his civilian clothes. What he didn't realize was that his memory was already failing him there. "I'm Rick," he said. He was pretty close.

"We've been having some troubles with dimensions lately," Angel continued. He started the car and it ran smooth. "My friends and I just escaped from a hell dimension called Pylea a few weeks ago. Very medieval."

"I'm from a futuristic dimension compared to this one," Rick replied. "But I was stuck for a few weeks in another one, and since then I've gone to a few more. I'm a little lost now."

"Hmm," Angel said. "The kinds of dimensions we deal with are more mystical than tech. Wesley may be able to figure something out."

"You're going to help me?" Rick asked.

"Not exactly," Angel replied. "I don't even know you. I just want to make sure you're no kind of threat, or some kind of portend of the apocalypse. Frankly, I'm getting a little burned out on those." Mega Man didn't know what to think about that statement. He pressed the issue a bit.

"So, you have mysticism here. And you're a…" Mega Man began but couldn't finish.

"Vampire," Angel replied. "You can say it. It's a long story."

"Aren't vampires supposed to be all bad?" Mega Man asked. He remembered once fighting a robot vampire, but didn't think the experience really gave him qualified knowledge on the subject.

"They are," Angel replied. "Vampires don't have any souls. In that regard I'm unique."

"Robots on my world don't have souls," Mega Man answered. "I guess I'm unique in that way too. But they aren't all evil."

"Not that I know much about robots," Angel replied. "But they usually act however they're programmed to act. Vampires are humans who have been turned half demon. The problem is most humans are already half evil anyway. Vampires completely lose their souls; they no longer have any inclination to be anything except evil."

"I see." Mega Man replied. "Did you have to kill them, though?"

"What am I going to do, put them in jail?" Angel asked.

"Why not?" Mega Man asked.

"First of all, the world at large doesn't know about the supernatural, and it's for the best. Secondly these people are not really people anymore. They're demons, pure forces of evil. Whatever person they look like, that person died a long time ago."

"So… do you sleep in a coffin?" Mega Man asked.

"Oh God, not this question again," Angel sighed. For the rest of the car ride into L.A, Angel explained about the world Mega Man was in, and corrected him on some of the misconceptions of vampires. They were not affected by garlic, they didn't have any innate ability to change shape or charm people, and they did not sleep in coffins. Vampires were weak to many of the same things Mega Man had believed, however. A stake to the heart or decapitation would immediately return them to dust. Sunlight would very quickly cause a vampire to catch on fire, and fire could kill a vampire as well. Even very strong vampires could only manage to last a few seconds in sunlight. Holy symbols like a crucifix or Star of David could cause a vampire to recoil or prevent one from approaching, and burned when touched. Holy water had the same effect as acid on a vampire. Finally, vampires could live without blood, though they would slowly lose their sanity and quickly lose their strength without it. Angel always drank the blood of animals, which he got through making some deals with local slaughterhouses. Angel explained more about the world, that it was often filled with various types of demons that lived in the underbelly of society; most evil, some neutral, and even a few good. Angel then explained about some of his friends, as they were pulling into the hotel which Angel made a home of. Wesley Windham Price was their resident expert on the supernatural. He had previously been a Watcher, part of a council that kept an eye on the supernatural happenings of the world and was dedicated to protecting it. Given his failures within the council he had been kicked out and became a rogue demon hunter. He eventually joined with Angel and his company Angel Investigations that helped the helpless around the Los Angeles area. Charles Gunn was a vampire hunter since the age of twelve. He had formed a street gang protecting his inner city neighborhood in the badlands from vamps and other demons. He too eventually joined up with Angel as he reached adulthood and saw the greater good he could do working city-wide. Cordelia Chase was the heart of the team. Once a completely shallow, wealthy California princess, she had gone on to become a failing actress when her family's money was seized by the IRS. She knew Angel from the town of Sunnydale which had been his previous location, and after he saved her life she began to work for his business as a secretary. Eventually she inherited visions which caused her intense pain every time she saw something, but gave her important knowledge of the future from what she called the Powers that Be in order to guide Angel. Finally there was Winifred Burkle or Fred as they called her. They did not know much about her, really, except for the fact that she had been a physics grad student at UCLA when she was sucked into the hell dimension known as Pylea, where she survived for five years as a slave to demons and then as an escaped slave before Angel and his crew rescued her. Extremely withdrawn from the experience, she spent most of her time locked in her room at the hotel.

Angel led Mega Man into the hotel. Mega Man had had enough time to sit still in the car that his leg was starting to feel better, though it was still full of grit. His limp was only slight. Before they were even fully through the entrance, they were approached by Wesley. He was a thin man of average height, wearing mostly dark colors. He had a slightly spiky hairstyle and wore a pair of old spectacles. He spoke with a British accent: "Angel, we need to talk. I've already found some prophecies pertaining to…" he paused for a moment and eyes Mega Man. "Well, pertaining to him, I believe."

"Good job Angel saving that girl," Angel said sardonically. "You took care of it so quickly, and look what you found."

"Sorry," Wesley apologized.

"I'm used to it." Angel responded. He led Mega Man into the lounge along with Wesley while continuing to talk. "Where's Cordy?"

"She decided to take a nap, I believe. The last vision took a bit of a toll on her, I'm afraid." Wesley answered. Mega Man stood there sheepishly, feeling completely alien to these people. He didn't feel like a part of their conversation or even their world.

"This is Rick, by the way." Angel said. That made Mega Man feel a little better.

"Oh," Wesley said. "Charmed." Wesley offered his hand, but Mega Man was a little slow on the uptake, so Wesley quickly moved his hand away and grabbed a large tome he had placed on a couch. He laid it out in front of the two. "This is from the prophecies of Hikari Yīshēng, eleventh century Japan, written in kanji. This is a rough translation, mind you."

"Well what does it say?" Angel asked, a little impatient.

"Hikari was working for the Fujiwara clan on the conversion of the village Byōdō-in into a large Buddhist temple. One night he claims in his journal to have encountered an Oni demon. The demon was dissatisfied with the religious conversion of the area and told him he would curse Hikari's life with visions of the future to shatter his faith. Hikari wrote the visions down and then went mad, drowning himself."

"What kind of visions?" Angel asked, again a little impatient. He didn't care much for back story.

"Well, this is the relevant one," Wesley continued. "A man of great mettle will fight six demons of the earth in a city of angels, lest the city be damned into hell."

"A man of great mettle?" Angel asked. "How does that apply to a robot boy?"

"I believe this was a mistranslation," Wesley said. "This copy is written in English, and I suspect the original prophecy was dictated to the writer."

"Meaning?" Angel asked.

"A man of great metal" Mega Man interrupted, "as in the material." Mega Man stomped his good foot on the ground to create a clanking noise.

"Precisely," Wesley confirmed. The group was suddenly interrupted from any further discussion by a loud scream upstairs. The three ran to the second floor quickly and rounded a corner to see Cordelia outside of Fred's room, convulsing on the ground. She was screaming in pain, and Fred was in her room balled up in a corner.

"I didn't do nothing," Fred said. "She was coming to talk to me and she fell over. I didn't do it." Fred covered her eyes.

"It's OK," Angel said, grabbing Cordelia. "Cordy!" he shouted. "Come on, I'm not gonna lose you too." Cordelia stopped screaming and after a few moments stopped shaking, and opened her eyes. "Are you alright?" Angel asked.

"It was another vision," she said softly, her voice a little weak. "A strong one." Wesley went over to Fred to calm her down and make sure she wasn't traumatized while Angel helped Cordy sit up.

"What did you see?" Angel asked.

"It was demons…" she said. "There were these big pointy silver demons, they were slashing people, shooting fire from their hands, ice… every kind of attack you could think of." Cordy looked over and saw Mega Man. "And you!" she pointed, a little surprised. "But different, you were dressed in blue. You were fighting them… but they killed you. They were killing so many people…" a small tear fell from her eyes.

"We're not going to let that happen, Cordy." Angel assured. "Where was it?"

"Business plaza… just outside of…" Cordelia began but trailed off.

"Where?" Angel asked.

"Wolfram and Hart." Cordelia finally answered. The look of concern on Angel's face turned to one of complete seriousness. He stood up and turned toward Wesley.

"Wes, call Gunn. You and him are with me. Fred, I want you to take care of Cordy. Can you do that to me?" Angel asked.

"Yes," Fred answered, standing up. "I'll save her like you saved me."

"Good." Angel said. "Rick," Angel spoke to Mega Man. "Looks like you've got a prophecy to fulfill." Mega Man recalled his uniform and shaped his hand into a plasma cannon. He simply nodded to Angel. "Let's get to work," Angel ordered.

It was a quiet night outside of Wolfram and Hart, one of LA's biggest law firms. Wolfram and Hart also happened to be the city's most evil law firm, specializing in dealing with demons and their contracts, and known for getting murderers off the hook in exchange for money and power. Since Angel had moved to LA, the two groups had constantly antagonized each other. A portal suddenly crackled into being outside of the law firm. Two figures stepped out. "Yes," one said. "This should be the place. Send the signal" He looked at the building and burst through the door. Alarms went off at the Wolfram and Hart facility. Security attacked the two, but proved utterly ineffective as they were swatted away. A secretary at the main desk sat there in utter shock. The two figures of Violen and Vile stepped forward. "Where is the Mega Man?" Violen shouted. Four more portals began to materialize behind him. "I must have my revenge!"


End file.
